Hollywood is a lot like that idiotic kid of yours who, no matter how much confidence you allow, just can’t do anything right. You set up some optimism, let some benefit of the doubt slip in, and there he goes disappointing you yet again until you just stare at him thinking “Can’t you do anything right?” While Paul WS Anderson is that bad influence who keeps digging his hands into your affairs and fucking it up. In one drawn out obnoxious plot device, the sexy cheerleader girl asks her humble love interest: “Now… are you looking at me or the clock?” It’s almost as if she was talking to me, and I had to answer: “The Clock… the clock. Is it over yet?”
Tag Archives: A
Across The Universe (2007) (DVD)
One of the benefits of being a hardcore Beatles fan is that I don’t really need to buy the covers of the best Beatles songs of all time presented in “Across the Universe.” Instead I have the entire soundtrack and much more in my grasp. Ain’t it sweet? “Across the Universe” gets a lot of guff for being that representation of the Beatles that wasn’t mean to be. It’s a movie, a mainstream movie, with a rather cliché story, but you know what? Fuck it. “Across the Universe” is an absolute masterpiece, a thrilling, chilling, and incredible musical experience that takes the best of the Beatles and transfers it into an awfully excellent romance and war time story under the direction of Julie Taymor who takes a movie and makes it into a cathartic experience for the fans.
Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007)
When I was a child, I absolutely loved the Chipmunks. And like every child born in the eighties, or born at the tail end of the eighties, I adored their covers of classic doo wop and Motown songs, with the squealed high pitch vocals, crude but effective animation and life lessons. And we all knew Alvin was the coolest. At the start of the sentence you’ll notice I said “When I was a Child” I loved the Chipmunks. Now, sitting here at twenty four years old, I long for the old series and find myself kicking my own ass at the fact that this eighties chic throwback entertained me.
Anita: Swedish Nymphet (1973)
When you get right down to it, sure, “Anita” is sexploitation, and sure in many occasions it can be pure smut, but, and this is a giant but: “Anita” can also be quite entertaining. Very much in the vein of films like “Black Snake Moan,” Wickman’s drama porn is not just a display for Christina Lindberg and her gorgeous physique, it’s an interesting study in the habits of nymphomaniacs, and the misery that can arise from sex and sexual acts when it’s made out of sheer impulse and not pleasure. Sixteen year old Anita is a girl with so much psychosis that she’s hopelessly addicted to sex and really has no grasp on restraint or discretion when it comes to getting what she wants.
Atonement (2007)
All it took were the words of a child. All it took were the words and accusations of one child, and it set in motion events of one of the most unusual romances I’ve ever come across. “Atonement” is set around the hook of a man accused of a crime, which gives him surprising clarity on his life. Robbie is a servant for a local wealthy family in the countryside on the cusp of World War 2 where Hitler is beginning his reign of terror. But, “Atonement” is less about the lieu of the war, and more about what leads to Robbie’s inevitable interaction with the big war that he didn’t intend on. It begins on a light note, as Joe Wright, known for the moderately entertaining “Pride & Prejudice” adaptation, starts the film off as an odd series of coincidences and happenstances that take a toll on the characters all around them.
A New and Accurate Map of the World (2007)
Fiona: Are you retarded?
Aidan: Why does everybody keep asking me that?
If you’re going to create a drama that’s based on only two characters and reliant on dialogue, you’d better have the ability to write and back up the ambition that comes with the territory. Alexander’s drama is a film that wasn’t an immediate win for me, I’ll admit; I found it cliché, a bit redone, and lagging. But upon further delving into the story, “A New and Accurate…” is a rather tight drama romance with an interesting inadvertent allusion to “Eternal Sunshine…” with a hint of “Before Sunrise.”
The Asian Superman Myth (2007)
Hi, I’m Felix, a movie critic who, you may know, has been a hardcore Superman fan since before I could read. Superman is a character that’s meant a lot to me over the years, and I take great humor in folks who pay homage or poke fun at the character because Superman is a versatile creation that’s ripe for any context. “The Asian Superman Myth” is a mock documentary that begs the question: Is Superman really Asian? It’s possible, is it not? Claveria makes a great case for the notion. In Claveria’s film, the world shown is a world where Superman exists, and Superman is not only just a popular comic book character, but an anomaly that may or may not exist among us.